update windows build doc

.gitignore

@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 # Build directories
 build*
 !buildtools
+.cache
 
 # Emacs auto-save files
 *~

CMakeLists.txt

@@ -1,4 +1,11 @@
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14)
+
+# --- vcpkg
+if(DEFINED ENV{VCPKG_ROOT} AND NOT DEFINED CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE)
+    message(STATUS "VCPKG_ROOT: $ENV{VCPKG_ROOT}")
+    set(CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE "$ENV{VCPKG_ROOT}/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake" CACHE STRING "")
+endif()
+
 project(mathplot)
 # Note that the project version is encoded in mplot/version.h and not in this CMakeLists.txt
 

README.build.windows.md

@@ -1,10 +1,57 @@
-# Building with Visual Studio
+# Building with Visual Studio/VSCode
 
-It is possible to build the examples and test programs using Visual Studio.
+It is possible to build the examples and test programs using Visual Studio/VSCode.
 
-You first have to install vcpkg.
+## *Required*: Install dependencies
 
-You open the cmake folder from Visual Studio, and make use of [vcpkg](https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg) to get dependencies in place. There is a vcpkg.json file in the repository at [vcpkg/vcpkg.json](https://github.com/sebsjames/mathplot/blob/main/vcpkg/vcpkg.json).
+### Install vcpkg
+vcpkg is a package manager for C++ libraries. It can be used to download and install the required dependencies for the examples and test programs.
+
+To install vcpkg, follow the instructions at [vcpkg](https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg).
+
+After vcpkg is installed, you need to set the environment variable `VCPKG_ROOT` to the path where vcpkg is installed, then set the `CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE` variable to the path of the vcpkg toolchain file.
+
+In Visual Studio, you can follow [Customize CMake build settings](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/customize-cmake-settings?view=msvc-170) to set `CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE`.
+
+In VSCode, you can set these variables in the `settings.json`:
+```json
+{
+     "cmake.configureSettings": {
+         "CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE": "${env:VCPKG_ROOT}/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake"
+     },
+}
+```
+
+### Install dependencies with vcpkg
+
+#### Mainfest mode(recommended)
+
+When `vcpkg.json` is in the root directory of the project, vcpkg will automatically install the required dependencies when you run the CMake configuration step.
+
+#### Classic mode
+
+To install the required dependencies, run the following command in the terminal:
+
+```
+vcpkg install armadillo freetype glfw3 hdf5 nlohmann-json opengl rapidxml
+```
+
+### Install Qt5
+
+To use Qt, you need to install the Qt SDK using the [official installer](https://download.qt.io/official_releases/online_installers/).
+
+Then add the Qt bin directory to the system PATH environment variable, and set the environment variable `QT5_DIR` to the Qt installation directory.
+
+### Build the examples and test programs
+
+You can build the examples and test programs using the Visual Studio/VSCode(with cmake plugins).
+
+Or you can build in terminal:
+
+``` cmake
+cmake -B build
+cmake --build build --config Release
+```
 
 # Building on Windows Subsystem for Linux